Historic Deerfield in Massachusetts has some famous doors. In 1760, a famous wood joiner named Samuel Partridge built a door for the house of Reverend John Williams. Many neighbors then sought to replicate its style. This original door is on display in the Flynt Center of Early New England Life, a museum maintained […]

I was at Sturbridge Village last weekend (detecting a theme?) and there happened to be two costumed interpreters making soap, the old way. In an earlier post, I mentioned that the ashes from all those wood fires were saved for making soap. I had a vague idea of the process, but took the […]

Last night I was contemplating the enormous amount of books I own (and the ones I wish to acquire) and their imminent move (the movers always sigh when they see the paperbacks, then groan when they see all our biology and medical texts). I was asked recently to list my favorite authors and why… […]

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…And Their Consequences
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We have a sweet black lab that we trained to a wireless fence.
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The basic principle behind the thing is that there is an underground wire around your property that is linked to an electrode on a collar they wear. When the dog gets too close, the collar beeps a warning. If […]

Wait for Their Return incorporates a lot of historical facts from the 1830s. To get the details as accurate as possible, I spent a huge amount of time reading and researching. The library has seen a lot of me this past year.
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I also made several trips to Sturbridge Village in order to […]

I love looking at the architecture of old houses and wondering what stories could lie within. What ghosts can be imagined to wander the rooms from years long past?